LIHU‘E — Last month, the Kaua‘i Office of the County Clerk Elections Division mailed about 40,000 signature-capture cards to Kaua‘i voters, kick-starting the transition to a statewide vote-by-mail elections.
Unlike other states which are currently enforcing voting through mailed ballots because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, voting by mail or early voting was already on the horizon for Hawai‘i.
Last year, the state Legislature passed a bill to establish mail voting “uniformly across all counties for all elections commencing in 2020.”
The 2020 Primary Election will mark the first statewide election conducted by mail, with no traditional polling places on Election Day.
“The timing was by chance,” Elections Administrator Lyndon Yoshioka said. “This system works well with the pandemic. We’re lucky to have this transition.”
The personalized signature cards, which went out in late March, ask voters to provide their signatures to the county.
“Signatures change over time,” Yoshioka said. “We have some signatures that could be a decade or more old.”
The cards are in three sections: one for personalized election information, a second for information regarding upcoming election information, and a third for the voter’s name, a barcode and the signature block. For added security measures, the middle section of the car folds over the signature to conceal the identity of the voter.
Cards come with postage-paid return information, but voters can hand-deliver the cards to the Elections Division in the Historic County Building annex or mail them back in separate envelopes.
As the division receives the cards, they go through an envelope sorter, then are visually analyzed by staff members. Yoshioka said the cards do not have a deadline to be turned in, but the sooner the better so problems can be addressed.
As for safety measures, Yoshioka said paper documents are considered a liability, but since it’s an election record, the division will keep these signatures for 22 months following the election.
Hawai‘i joins Colorado, Washington and Oregon in using the exclusive mail-in voting system.
When it comes time to vote, registered voters will be mailed a ballot package containing a ballot, secrecy sleeve, return envelope and voting instructions.
These packets should arrive about 18 days before the Aug. 8 primary election and Nov. 3 general election.
Completed ballots must be in the hands of the Elections Division by 7 p.m. on both election days. This can be done through mail, hand-delivery, or at a voter service center at the Historic County Building annex, which will be open 10 days before the elections.
The Elections Division can be reached at elections@kauai.gov, 241-4800 or kauai.gov/Elections.
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Sabrina Bodon, public safety and government reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
